There are a few guaranteed cast members for a Muppet movie: Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie etc. But it would seem that the next film – which doesn’t actually have a title at the moment – is slowly locking in its human support. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones are all negotiating to join co-writer/star Jason Segel in the film.
A quick recap of what we know about the plot so far. The film finds the felt-based favourites campaigning to save a movie studio that has sentimental value for them (which sounds like it’s changed from an old-school music-hall theatre they were aiming to rescue in earlier drafts). To raise money to keep the place going, they decide to put on a show. But first they need to reunite.
And that’s where Segal comes in – he’ll be the man who goes looking for some of the old gang to get them back together for the performance. If she signs, Adams will play his girlfriend. Her casting was first rumoured earlier this month by Entertainment Weekly, and now it looks like it’ll come true.
Chris Cooper will be the big threat – a nasty tycoon who thinks there’s oil under the studio’s location and is ready to buy it up, tear it down and start drilling. And Jones? She’s locking in the role for an ABC TV network executive (the network isn’t really a surprise considering Disney owns both it and the Muppets themselves).
Puppet fanatic Segel wrote the script with Get Him to the Greek’s Nicholas Stoller and Flight of the Conchords’ James Bobin is set to start directing it next month in LA. It's time to play the music. It's time to... Oh, sing the rest yourself.